Loyal Steed
by Tragedy of Melpomene
Summary: Because he had stayed by her side from the very beginning. Just because it was a new world, doesn't mean he left.
1. Reunion

In this new world, without Gods or Monsters, they'd all had to find new specialties and hobbies. For Lightning, her new hobby had been equestrianism.

Riding had been a large part of her life since she had become a L'cie. Odin, her ever-faithful steed, had been like an extension of herself. To give up riding was something she wasn't willing to do. After all the reunions and hugs and emotional bull shit was over with, she'd strong armed Snow, Noel and Hope (who was an adult again, thankfully) into helping her build a stable in which to keep the horse she had every intention of buying. Now, six months after finishing the stable and fences, she still hadn't found the perfect partner for her.

Oh, sure, the sellers showed her some incredible horses. Tall, strong, and spirited they might have been, but they were missing that all essential spark that she was looking for in her partner. Because this horse wouldn't be a pet, couldn't be. Sighing, Lightning prepared to tell the seller thanks but no thanks when a flash of white caught the corner of her eye. Turning, she found herself looking at a pure white horse, rearing itself on its hind legs and tossing its rider to the ground.

"As, I see Angel has caught your eye. He tends to do that, being such a rare color. Unfortunately, he seemingly can't be tamed as you can well see."

And see she did. The trainer who'd been flung off limped away to the fences and a new one took his place. But Angel, as the horse was deceptively named, wouldn't let him near and bolted away. Something about this horse called to her, called to the piece of her who was just as wild as he was. It was almost as if… Her eyes widened as the thought finished itself. It couldn't be…

Behind her, she could hear the salesman saying something else but it went in one ear and out the other as she went for the door that would lead out to the enclosure and when reaching the fence, immediately hopped it. Angel whipped his head around and stared her right in the eyes and just stopped. Stopped fighting, stopped snorting, and just came to a stand still. And right there in his eyes, she saw it. She saw the echo of her Eidolon as he was when she first met him, heard the wark of the large white chocobo he had turned into so that he might remain at her side. This was her partner, now and forevermore. This was…

"Odin," It was almost like a whisper on the wind but he heard her. And now that she looked at him, she wondered how she ever thought this horse could be anyone but her partner. How she thought that any ordinary horse might suffice to fill the gap that he had left. A pure white thoroughbred that had to be nearly twenty hands tall, no one would ever be able to even hope to tame this horse. But she didn't want to tame him. She just wanted to be whole again.

So when the horse started approaching her, she didn't move despite the panicked voices she could hear behind her, the trainers begging her to get away from him. The whole time, their eyes stayed connected. When he finally entered her personal space, he just snorted at her and pulled her hair as if asking, 'what took you so long?'

She couldn't really say anything to that, so she just laughed. And once she started, she couldn't stop so she threw her arms around the neck of the powerful animal in front of her. And if she cried a bit, well, Odin would never tell and she would never admit it. Behind her, the panicked voices had died down into confused and almost disbelieving but she paid them no mind. Eventually though, she became uncomfortable with how out of character she was acting and moved away from Odin, flicking him on the nose to make him let go of her hair.

Pivoting on her heel, she turned to face the gob smacked face of the salesman while summoning up every ounce of authority she had gained from being a soldier in another life and said, "I'll be taking this horse."

When no one moved, she let some of her irritation slip into her voice as she repeated herself. Behind her, she could hear Odin pawing at the ground in what was probably thought to be, and in fact was, a threatening manner. It almost made her smile, but she'd broken character enough for today. She had a reputation to uphold after all. So when he stammered out for her to follow him, she turned shortly to pet Odin's nose once more before following the scared man.

She wasn't a soldier anymore, or a Goddess, or even a savior of souls. But Odin had come back to her once more and she would fight tooth and nail to make sure he never left her again.

* * *

Word Count: 848

Unbetaed, but I'll try and get back to it eventually and go through it.

Fun fact about horse!Odin. He's a Thoroughbred horse, which typically grows between 15 to 17 hands tall, though the largest in the world is a bit more than 19. So I made him slightly larger, because Odin is awesome and he deserves to be unique and frankly thought impossible. This is further exemplified by the fact that he's white, which is an extremely rare color on a Thoroughbred and yes, it is different from gray.

Also: I really seem to hate dialogue, don't I?


	2. Revelation

Getting Odin home was a hassle since the former Eidolon absolutely hated being cooped up in the typically too small trailers but fortunately, it was only an hour ride back to the home she shared with Serah and Snow. But it was completely worth dealing with the irate former eidolon to see the looks on the faces of their rag tag family (why everyone else was even there, she would never know) when the large horse came barreling out of the trailer and without so much as a look at the former saviors of the world, jumped the fence to explore the land that was now his territory.

Smirking to herself, Lightning slowly looked over everyone and pulled her phone out. Photographic evidence would make such a nice reminder of this wonderful day. Sazh had toppled over in his chair at the sight of the horse. His food had gone flying into the air and had landed mostly in his afro, but a great deal of it had landed in his lap as well. _Snap._

Yuel and Dahj had gasped in what she thought to be wonder and raced to the fence, leaning against it to get a better look at the horse. Wide smiles decorated their faces and Dahj leaned so far over the fence that she started to fall, but Yuel grabbed the back of her shirt to try and stop her from toppling over. But even so, they were still laughing and smiling. _Snap._

Vanille had squeaked in terror at the large animal and had thrown her large glass of water at Hope unintentionally. The man's hair fell in a sodden heap on his face and small droplets raced down to join the rest of the water, which had hit his shirt. Hope was pouting at an apologetic Vanille, while Fang was pointing at him and laughing. _Snap._

By this point, Serah and Noel had raced over to the fence to help Dahj. Yuel was now sitting next to Serah, perched on the fence and pointing excitedly at Odin and talking to her sister a mile a minute while Noel had hefted Dahj up onto his shoulders, making sure he had a good grip incase they had to move, so he could watch the horse from a better angle. _Snap._

And Snow…Snow was staring at her, searching. Raising her eyebrow, Lightning slowly put her phone away, honestly a bit ticked at not getting a picture of Snow doing something stupid or out of character. At the sight of her raised eyebrow, he raised his own in return. Sometimes, she hated that he wasn't an idealistic moron anymore. It was so hard to get anything past a man who had ruled a relatively flourishing city for five hundred years. He didn't even need to say anything, and she knew that he knew. The stare down continued for a few moments longer before Snow finally gave in.

"I thought Odin and the other eidolons had stayed in the other world?"

Lightning shrugged. "I thought the same. But for once in my life, I'm not going to question it. I'm just happy he's here." Snow laughed at her.

"The great Clair Farron, admitting she's happy to someone other than Serah? Call an ambulance!"

Scowling, she stalked over to him and punched him in the arm. Hard. But he just laughed it off and shook his head. But when she turned away to stalk off, she caught the knucklehead rubbing his shoulder and it made her smirk again. Walking over to the fence, she ignored all the questions that were being thrown at her and hopped over it.

Breaking immediately into a run once she landed, it seemed like she was heading for a head on collision as Odin ran towards her. But at the last moment they both jumped and Lightning grabbed his mane and swung herself onto his back. When he hit the ground again, he immediately broke into a short run so he could get closer to the fence where everyone had gathered and he reared up on his hind legs. If she focused hard enough, Lightning thought she could even feel the weight of Odin's weapon in her hands again and the contradictory cool yet living metal that had once made up his body underneath her. But the illusion was broken by the loud gasps and what could only be Fang's loud exclamation of "What the hell!"

Smirking, she leaned forward and whispered to Odin to run in the opposite direction and so they could explore his new home a bit closer than his cursory look he'd already had. She knew that they all had questions, but they could wait a bit longer in her opinion. This was her reunion with Odin, her proper one. Not even her family could interrupt this.

As they ran off to explore the edge of the property though she could hear Fang again, clear as day, "Lightning, get your ass back here and explain!"

* * *

Word Count: Either 833 or 844. My word document and the doc manager here seem to disagree.

Anyways, so the others have seen Odin again and figured it out. Fang hates being kept in the dark, so she's a bit pissy right now.

As for why I chose Snow to be the one to originally recognize Odin, I imagine that other than Lightning, he had the closest relationship with his Eidolon and would be the most likely to understand the bond. In all honesty, he might have a stronger bond since him and Shiva were together for the five hundred years Light was asleep (well, I assume so anyways). Only reason I don't write a story about them is because Shiva's gestalt mode was a motor cycle and that's not exactly sentient.

I originally only planned for one more part for this afterwards, but I think I might write two more short installations. While I was writing this, I got another idea but I'm not sure if I'm going to turn it into anything yet.

Once again, Unbetaed. Give me a bit and if I remember, I'll come back and edit it again if I find it needs some major revision.


End file.
